BGE works to restore power to Bel Air residents

BGE restores power to 100K+ customers

It's been a rough couple of days around the state as far as severe weather is concerned as back-to-back late afternoon storms on Tuesday and Wednesday have left a lot of destruction in their paths, which means power outages and lots of them.

It's been a rough couple of days around the state as far as severe weather is concerned as back-to-back late afternoon storms on Tuesday and Wednesday left a lot of destruction in their paths, which meant power outages and lots of them.

Baltimore Gas and Electric said it has restored power to more than 100,000 customers and is now concentrating on smaller outages that can be tedious.

"It's a large job. That's labor and time intensive, but it's only putting back in a small number of customers at a time," BGE spokeswoman Rachel Lighty said.

"I lost my hot water heater on Sunday and had a problem with AC yesterday. We lost power last night," resident Kim Dilegge said.

A neighborhood off Vale Road in Bel Air has had to deal with on-again, off-again power outages, which neighbors said is frustrating.

"The storm came in, and not soon after the storm came in, we lost it. I have a dog that is scared to death, so I laid on the floor. We lost (power for) a couple hours, then it came back on, then we lost it again this morning," Dilegge said.

BGE crews could be seen working hard to repair lines that were damaged by trees, which was a positive sign for folks without power.

"One great thing is BGE has come out really quickly, and as you see all the vehicles around here, they're taking care of things as best as possible. So overall, it could be a lot worse, but we're handling things well around here," resident Michelle Gamble said.

Officials with BGE said they have called in an additional 150 workers from other states to help with the workload, and they will continue to monitor storms that are expected in the coming days.

"We are prepared to continue to monitor impending weather and also respond to any weather-related power outages should we see them from the impending storms," Lighty said.

It also means most of those out-of-state workers will hang around through the weekend just in case.

As far as preventing future outages, at least when it comes to trees, BGE said being prepared is key, and planning ahead before planting can help, too.

"If you do have trees that are planted near power lines and they need to be trimmed, it is a good idea to think about that prior to any storms. Make sure that those trees are far enough away from electric distribution lines that you aren't causing outages," Lighty said.